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Health care workers to explore relationship between inadequate funding,
outsourcing and hospital-acquired infections
TORONTO, Oct. 17 /CNW Telbec/ - Health care workers will call on the
McGuinty government to intervene wherever hospitals try to outsource cleaning
jobs, health care workers and supporters will say at a media conference,
Tuesday, October 21.
It isn't wise to contract out cleaning jobs as our public health care
system fights hospital-acquired infections such as C. Difficile, health care
workers and NDP MPP Andrea Horwath will argue at Tuesday's Queen's Park media
event.
WHAT: Media conference on cleaning jobs and hospital infections
WHO: Andrea Horwath, NDP MPP for Hamilton Centre
Mike Tracey, President, Canadian Union of Public Employees
(CUPE) 786, St. Joseph's Hospital (Hamilton)
Michael Hurley, President, Ontario Council of Hospital Unions
(OCHU/CUPE)
WHEN: Tuesday, October 21, 10:00 AM
WHERE: Queen's Park Media Studio, Queen's Park, Toronto
The McGuinty government, through its "Local Health Integration Networks"
(LHINs), is not funding hospitals adequately, forcing many to consider
contracting out cleaning, despite escalated risk from infections.
In Britain, hospitals outsourced hospital housekeeping services, dropping
staff from nearly 100,000 to 55,000 in the last 15 years. In April 2008,
Britain's Royal College of Nursing called for cleaning services to be brought
back in-house and for the end of outsourcing, citing a drop in standards and a
rise in infections.

For further information:

For further information: David Robbins, CUPE Communications, cell (613)
878-1431